District 5 Diary

Rob Anderson's commentary on San Francisco politics from District 5

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Chris Daly unchained

Chris Daly is free at last! Now he can tell us what he really thinks, unburdened by any wimpy discretion required of his blog that used to be on the SFGov site. Now he can tell us the unvarnished truth about Mayor Newsom, and, while he's at it, display his intellectual depth, as opposed to the mayor, who he calls an "intellectual lightweight." Daly displays his intellectual superiority right away by calling Newsom a "chicken mayor," with a link to Ted Strawser's anti-Newsom website, which, typical of the mayor's critics, is anonymous, with Strawser's name nowhere to be found on the site. A reference to "neolibs" is linked to a Wikipedia entry because heavyweights are supposed to have evidence for their arguments.

Then Daly provides a Big Picture reference to "global capital" hyperlinked, oddly, to the city's General Plan. Supervisor Alioto-Pier is called a "downtown sycophant," and there's a riff on Newsom as a child of privilege, with a link to a 2001 article on white privilege on an Australian website. (Funny but the privileged Newsom rents an apartment, while Daly owns a condo. Where did Man of the People Daly get the down payment to buy a condo?)

Daly abandoned his SFGov blog site apparently because Jim Sutton filed a complaint rightly accusing Daly of "misusing city resources for political purposes," presumably for his earlier attacks on Mayor Newsom on the SFgov blog. It's hard to tell, because Daly's link to the Sutton document doesn't work. In any event, to hear Daly tell it, he has the mayor on the run:

Gavin Newsom is really losing it. His handlers know this and are attempting to shut down anything and everything that is contributing to his breakdown. We've known for some time about Gavin's glass jaw. It's not just that he can't take criticism---dude can't even defend himself. Newsom never has done well with me. Now I seem to be a particularly sensitive subject for Gavin---pulling every string of Liberal, Catholic guilt in the man's body. My vocal opposition is putting him under, and that is why they are moving heaven and earth to shut me down...So in an overabundance of caution, I've re-launched my blog here at The Daly Blog---off the City's servers. I am now free to write what I want unedited, uncensored, and unadulterated. I hope that you find it worthwhile.

Through the looking glass: It's not Chris Daly who's in trouble, losing his seat on the Budget Committee and causing a firestorm when he accused the mayor of using cocaine. Daly's got Newsom on the ropes! Daly moves in for a knock-out, suggesting that Newsom isn't very smart, hyper-linking the Mensa website. (Hey, do you think the lightweight Newsom could even find the Mensa site?) Worst of all Daly accuses Newsom of wimpy drinking habits, with "a soft spot only for Italian whites." Pretty hard to live that one down! As it turns out, in the article/interview Daly links, Newsom specifically mentions also liking Pinot Noir and Zinfandel.

Chris "The Real Deal" Daly even makes an unconvincing defense of his cocaine speech: "I never made that accusation," even while citing the exact wording he used: "...while the Mayor of San Francisco artfully dodges every question about allegations of his own cocaine use." Anyone not an ardent Daly supporter understands that that is exactly what he did, weasel-wording notwithstanding.

But, wouldn't you just know it? The corporate media has seized on the occasion to attack Chris Daly, Tribune of the People, which is what you would expect Global Capital to do to dangerous intellectuals like him.